Democratic Socialists Cosplaying as Capitalists and the JD Vance Diet

If you aren’t laboring today, thank the unions. If you are laboring today, you have probably made good choices and still have responsibilities to work, family, and friends. For heartlanders, it’s a mixed bag of “I could but maybe I won’t.” For those on a Labor Day respite, the conversation was not about how the weekend became an American holiday. No, the gruff talk, the “I can’t believe its,” were all about why JD Vance looks thinner, connecting the dots on Kamala Harris' campaign debt, and if a grandpa in Florida succeeded in the “got your nose” game.

The Vanishing VP: JD Vance

Heartlanders have asked us here at Liberty Nation News why Vice President JD Vance seems thinner. We dug in and found that Vance had been counting the calories the old-fashioned way: Watch what goes in through the lips that won’t stick to the hips. The VP recently said he had lost about 30 pounds since packing it on during his 2022 Ohio Senate campaign and what counts for the White House version of the freshman ten.

Vance explained: “If you want to lose weight, call Bobby Kennedy. And if you want to enjoy what you eat, do NOT call Bobby Kennedy.”

In Atlanta, John William also joked, but in a different way: “Or Taylor Farms.” And if you missed it, that is a reference to the massive Cyclospora parasite outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce from Mexico. Heartlanders have a lot of farmers’ markets to choose from, so maybe that bit of alarming news came with a bit of a buffer in some parts of the interior.

Vance said Kennedy nudged him toward a high-protein-and-sauerkraut regimen after he briefly flirted with giving up sugar for Lent, leaving the vice president’s staff to wonder whether dessert had been quietly removed from the briefing schedule. The ironic Fat Tuesday declaration is why Heartlanders appreciate the Vance diet story.

Up in Rockford, MI, Kristi Lachniet sealed the deal on people who claim it's prescribed drug-induced abuse: “Those of us that don’t shoot up a drug need T-shirts saying, ‘body NOT by GLP-1’. Absolutely ridiculous comments by people with zero self-control, discipline or personal responsibility.” Middle America likes that kind of declaration.

The public may never know about the dessert removal by the official chef in residence or if, like most people who diet the old-fashioned way, there is a Snickers hidden in a bag of Brussels sprouts in the back of the freezer.

Follow the Money

Kamala Harris owed a lot of money for her failed presidential race. The Democratic Party is now also deeply in the red for absorbing her $22 million in debt. At the end of 2025, the Democratic National Committee had paid over $20 million directly to cover the campaign's outstanding vendor invoices. How did the party do it? It secured a $15 million line of credit using its Washington, DC, headquarters building as collateral. If the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) could, maybe, lend a guy a hand? Yeah, no.

The New York City chapter of the DSA is spending a lot of money right now. Members recently approved annual salaries of $95,000 plus benefits for the top two commie-like folks in the Big Apple. But giving credit where due, both previously served as unpaid volunteers. The NYC chapter Leadership Committee cleared the resolution by a 51-10 vote.

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So those ten people seem to be actual socialists, and this is their argument: “Most of our co-chairs and most people in the DSA have laptop jobs and are upper middle class.” Another issue is that the DSA needs a good fact-checker. As reported by the New York Post, “Serious blowback targeted Gustavo Gordillo after reports emerged that he had lied about being a working union electrician. He was actually terminated from his union apprenticeship for failing to show up for work and missing classes.” Yeah, he sounds like a good candidate for that $95,000 salary.

And then there’s that generational wealth slur being bandied about and misuse of donations, which Drew Curlee, a guy from Pearland, TX, thought was ridiculous: “No surprise there. That trust fund baby would make Marie Antoinette proud.” Gustavo Gordillo is a product of lifetime wealth, living in an inherited $1.5 million house in a good neighborhood. No one sees privilege here – or hypocrisy, for that matter?

In Utah, Dan Kearl observed: “That proves he's a socialist, though. My cat is one too.”

In Charlotte, NC, Joseph Benham wandered in, saying: “Communism has still never worked. You can’t give the ruling elite that much power over the population and expect things to go well. Capitalism isn’t perfect, but it’s the best, most fair system we’ve come up with so far. The problem with the left is they incorrectly conflate corruption with capitalism.”

Oh, and now the organization is pulling a George Jefferson and moving on up to a swank office, complete with a doorman and 24-hour security for about $22,000 a month, leaving behind the urban grit of lower Manhattan.

Have you figured out where the money went? The DSA is on a roll while the party of John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton is looking a bit sickly – so it seems donors have either gone full-metal commie or glued their wallets shut.  

Just to make the discussion fair, the Republican National Committee (RNC) reports zero debt and over $128 million in cash. That’s the real beauty of the GOP. Bill Maher has called it “old white guys taking care of the money.”

Florida Man Now Infamous-By-Mugshot a Social Media Star

“A Florida man” is a fun game to play online if one is bored. Just write, hit search, and a laundry list of incredibly strange people and incidents (say folks From the Back Forty) that magically pop up for perusal. There’s a new guy topping the list. Charles Wilson Pastore was arrested in Fort Lauderdale a couple of days ago for trafficking methamphetamine, separate meth possession, cocaine possession, possession of a forged driver’s license or ID, and possession of drug paraphernalia. But he did not have possession of a nose. Nose or not, this Florida man landed himself in the Broward County jail system, where someone leaked his booking photo, and everyone is a jabber-jawing about the fact that he has no nose. Nothing. No flap, no skin folds. Nothing.

Heartlanders that tend to think out loud at times feel he could have a career as a DARE mascot.

And the former sheriff from Enterprise, KS, Kevin Diercks, who probably “nose” a thing or two about drug usage, had a few good points: “That's much more effective than the old fried egg ‘this is your brain on drugs’ commercial.”

But the nosiest of folks just wanted to know why there was no nose. In Oklahoma, Tristan Williams was also on the mystery mission: “I wonder what happened to it. But only he nose.” And one southern gentleman, Kevin Davies, went to a potential conspiracy theory, saying: “His grandpa got his nose and forgot to give it back.” Was that shot of Wild Turkey really worth it, Grandpa?

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Editor's Note: From the Back Forty is Liberty Nation's longest running and most popular weekly column.